Girls' Soccer Match...gone wrong...

International Women's Day. March 8.

It's a day that's celebrated around the world and has particular meaning to me since I work primarly with girls at the school level. So I thought to myself, what activity could I do to promote girls, show the community something a little new and have fun at the same time? Of course, a Girls' Soccer Match!

Thanks to my Dad and his gift of some really nice soccer balls, I decided to add a little competitive edge as well to get the girls (and all the students, for that matter) motivated and excited. The idea was to give the winning class a brand new soccer ball, but I decided to also give the 'losing' class another soccer ball as well, so everyone wins.

The CM2 girls were in my Girls' Club last year and thanks to Ali, know a little bit about the rules and how to play (cultural side note: here in Burkina Faso, soccer is a predominantly male sport. Rarely, if ever, do you see women, let alone girls, play soccer). And my CM1 girls were currently learning the ins-and-outs of soccer at our weekly Girls' Club meetings.

Because of everything that's been going on in Burkina Faso, the soccer match had to be pushed back to April 12. Not a problem! Ali served as the referee and everything seemed to be set. The day arrived, school ended and all the kids were getting excited. The girls were even wearing jerseys that the school somehow had, stashed away in the closet!

It was absolutely exhilarating and exciting to watch these girls play, and certainly showed the community their ability to do anything. Seriously! Until things took a turn for the worse...

...I guess I should first start with soccer being not just a sport, but almost a way of life. Especially for Burkinabè. They take it very, very seriously, and losing is no easy thing to take.

Because it's been so long, I don't remember the exact details but the CM2 girls were losing and their CM2 teacher instantly got angry at Ali, the referee, for an alleged unfair call. The CM1 girls made a penalty kick and won, but the CM2 teacher wouldn't take it...so he stormed off the field and took all of his kids with him. Talk about bad sportsmanship, right?

At the time, I didn't quite understand what was going on until Madame Ouattara, my neighbor and CM1 teacher, explained. Crap! So now I felt awkwardly wedged between all of this confusion.

Long story short, I made certain that everyone knew that the school actually gained two soccer balls and that the community knew that girls can play soccer. And that's the essential message from all of this.

The girls in action, with Ali as referee.

Madame Ouattara leading all of her students.

Probably the picture that best describes all the chaos at the end...the two teachers on the left complaining and Ali in the middle of it all. Haha!

The winning class...CM1! Congrats!

L'amour-propre. Self-esteem.

When you literally translate the words l'amour-propre, it's 'love for yourself.' But the best translation is self-esteem.

For the past few weeks in my CM1 Girls' Club, my Life Skills lesson has focused on self-esteem and my final activity was where each girl writes her name on the top of each page, tapes it to her back and each person writes something positive about her.

To help them out, in past meetings, I told stories that I created that asked the girls to describe the girl with with certain, positive adjectives (ex: courageous, strong, intelligent, etc.) and it culminated with making a list of these on the board.

Good thing I brought my camera -- my girls are absolutely hilarious!

By the way, I finally went to the hair salon in Ouaga and she ended up annihilating my faux-hawk. It's back to my haircut circa high school days...Ali randomly took this picture. I feel like because of this hot season, I've been losing weight because all I do is drink water and sweat. Hah!

Weekend Girls' Camp at my site!

Ahh yes, Weekend Girls' Camp #2 chez moi! We continued using the same four themes: Life Skills, English, Health and Sports.

Preparing for the camp was a little less insane at my house -- organizing the middle school visit; organizing the ridiculously huge task of feeding 22 people (may not seem like much but damn, do these kids eat a lot!); preparing the school; talking with guest speakers and school officials; dealing with my corrupt school director (long story short, the moment he found out I got a grant for this Girls' Camp, he straight up asked me for money because he deserved it and that because I was using the school. WTF?! You're obviously new and don't know that I work for the school too, douchebag. Ugh. Excuse the angry sentiment...); etc. So it was a lot of running around and calling people to prepare...

On Saturday morning, Jon and his 10 girls arrived at my site. What's crazy is that many of my girls are children of fonctionnaires (civil servants) that have salaried jobs. So they've had more of an opportunity to travel around Burkina Faso and have a little more means. Not so much the case for Jon's girls, which is why it was such a treat for them especially to come to my site!

We headed straight for the Collège (middle school) which is fortunately within walking distance. They JUST built it andit looks brand spankin' new! I had their Director, a very nice man named Mr. Meda, give them a little tour and encourage them to continue their studies to the secondary level and beyond. When we went back to the school, we continued the Life Skills activity on creating goals and objectives in life, which actually turned out really well!

Regarding Health activities, we focused on proper handwashing and Moringa/its nutritional value. Maybe it seemed a little like class but our hope is that they learned something that they'll carry with them. We also invited my friend, Koro, who works at the CSPS (village medical center) as a sage-femme (midwife?) to give a session using an image flipbook that I had on HIV/AIDS...clearly a very sensitive subject but something that definitely needed to be addressed. Never too early, especially here in Burkina Faso/Africa!

We did a little English this time around and the Sports focus this time was soccer which EVERY child in Burkina Faso -- heck, all of Africa -- enjoys! These girls are good!

All in all, an excellent final weekend followed by handing out Certificates of Participation and a grand group photo.

All right, enjoy the pictures, round 2:

Jon, Mr. Meda (middle school director) and the girls after their little field trip to the middle school. When Mr. Meda talked to the girls about the importance of working hard to get to the secondary level and seeing how different the environment was (and how new the school was!) got them really motivated. I started seeing lightbulbs flickering!

My 10 girls and I at one of the entrance signs to my site.

Talking to the girls about proper handwashing and why it's important to use water that's either running or tossed on your hands AND soap. The two girls to the right (Adissa and Aicha) are so ridiculously intelligent, it's inspiring.

We did this experiment with three girls and fabricated stories to make it interesting. The first girl went to play soccer out in the field and ended up touching the ground a lot. The second girl simply was in class all day. The third girl just washed her hands after using the bathroom. The idea was to have each of the girls was their hands with soap and water in the small white basin and show that washing your hands with running water is extremely important, but most especially with soap and by rubbing your hands to get rid of all the germs.

Jon conducting a cool English game where the girls race to draw a specific object and then they learn the translation in English.

My good friend Koro from the CSPS, using the image flipbook to discuss HIV/AIDS -- who it concerns, modes of transmission and ways of prevention. A very successful presentation; hopefully she can come again for a final Girls' Camp I'd like to host before leaving this year!

First group picture at my site.

Ali leading the girls in soccer. Damn, they're good and many of them have never played before in their lives!

A special dinner treat out at a restaurant in town.

Moringa and nutrition presentation.

After the presentation, we went outside and the girls made their own Moringa nursery that they could take home and grow by themselves.

After packing the empty water sachet with dirt, we watered it a little to get the soil moist.

Then we put in a couple of seeds to ensure that if one doesn't grow, the other will.

A really good picture of Alimata (one of the girls in my Girls' Club). Good job, Jon!

Explaining that when they get home, they need to poke two holes in the bottom to let the roots breathe and have excess water leave. That way, it'll be easier to transplant it to the ground.

Clémence and Franck helping bring the food over. Mmmm!

Madame Hien and Ali preparing the salad -- a real treat since it's lettuce season right now and not too far from my house, either. Holla!

Jon with the massive amounts of food. Rice with eggplant and fish sauce (sounds weird but it really, really good!) and salad with onions and spices. A true feast!

Jon and I with our 20 girls and their Certificates of Participation. A final picture!

Jon and I after the Camp...exhausted but well worth it. =)

Gardening & Girls' Clubs!

As I mentioned in my last blog entry about work starting off a bit on the wrong foot, the first trimester of your second year as a GEE PCV is still a bit of a trial. Don't get me wrong, I feel very comfortable at site and feel like I know what I have to do...it's just a matter of doing it with all this protocol and such which is the difficult thing.

I eventually got started around the middle of November to at least get the ball rolling. As of late, I've been branching out and doing activities with other schools. Jean, my counterpart, needed help with his school garden (his primary school is about 2km from my house) so I provided some financial support to get the appropriate seeds and also helped with organizing all the kids and such. Lots of fun! I'll be coming in every week and we even have a little section for Moringa to educate the kids on its importance and how it can provide great nutritional value to their food.

Jean teaching the kids how to properly care for the soil.

Jean and I.

Jean and I with most of the kids from his CM1 and CM2 classes.

I've had a couple more activities with the school (alphabet project, an English & Cultures of the World club, baby weighings at the CSPS, etc.) but sadly, no pictures (yet!). I do have pictures from my CM1 Girls' Club which I've started again. The girls this year are different from last year's girls...a little more reserved and it's taking a little longer to explain the importance of Life Skills. Aicha, Madame Ouattara's daughter, is part of my Girls' Club and one of my chefs (club leaders) which is great because she understands my French and can explain things to the girls when they don't really understand my explanations. I will say that these girls are turning into really great soccer players which I'm really excited about!

Same format -- Life Skills, English and Soccer every Thursday!

=)

Ali helping me lead the girls in soccer.

The girls divided into two teams, ready to duke it out!

Aicha leading the pack!!

Come January, Jon and I are planning a joint weekend Girls' Camp with his CM1 Girls' Club and my CM1 Girls' Club. I'm really excited for this! We live so close to each other -- why not do more collaborative work together, especially as GEE volunteers?! One weekend we'll be at his site and the next weekend, we'll be at my site. The greatest part is that the girls will be able to meet each other, many of whom have never been farther than 5km from their houses in their lives. So updates on that soon!

A Moringa pepinière!

When I went back to site for a few days after TOT Workshop, I decided that I needed to make the most of it since I'd be gone for a few weeks for VAC and the start of PST. Talked to the teachers at my primary school for a bit about the end of the school year activities, weighed babies at the CSPS (village medical center) and decided to start a Moringa pepinière (nursery) since it's rainy season is about to begin and everyone's hitting the fields.

A few of the really dedicated girls in my CM1 Girls' Club helped me out with everything from beginning to end to make this Moringa pepinière a reality. My hope is that when I return to site in the beginning of July, I'll have a full-grown nursery that I can begin to plant at the school, in my courtyard and at the CSPS.

Planting Moringa is something that was emphasized as an excellent secondary project. Personally, I don't have much experience planting, except for when my little brother David and I were little and we helped our Dad plant things in our backyard (I'm talking 5 years old, so really, we didn't do much!). But what happens is that if done correctly, the Moringa tree can survive in pretty harsh conditions. The leaves (also if dried/used properly) have ridiculous amounts of vitamins and nutrients that can be added to any dish. A perfect way to combat malnutrition and help save the environment too. Read it up!

The girls collected the water sachets along the street in town. Littering is such a huge problem here in Burkina (I admit, I can be guilty of it, too) so it wasn't difficult to collect water sachets.

I showed the girls how to cut the appropriate holes into the water sachets so that water can exit in the bottom.

We then got a wheelbarrow and collected some dirt to place into the water sachets.

Hard work, yo! The cultivating tool they use is called the "daba."

Placing the dirt into the water sachets. Ideally, you should mix dirt with compost and manure...because time was of the essence, I just used really moist dirt.

We lined them up on my porch and poked our thumbs into each dirt-filled water sachet. You insert the seeds and voila! You're almost done.

Watering them initially is extremely important.

While I'm gone, one of my CM1 Girls' Club leaders (Kadidja) will be helping to water them everyday. She is without a doubt one of my favorite students! You'll be hearing more about her later, I'm sure. She'll definitely go far in life!

Jon and I constructed this net cover over the Moringa pepinière to protect it from hungry goats and sheep that will definitely munch on the plants once they start to sprout.

Special thanks to my good pal and closest PCV neighbor Jon for helping me out and taking pictures!! My New Year's Resolution to take more pictures is definitely working. We just need to take more pictures of our daily life!

Okay, so that's that. This might be the last blog in a while because I'm heading to Ouahigouya to start training for the new Volunteers. Exciting!

ALSO, IT'S OFFICIAL! I'VE LIVED HERE IN AFRICA FOR MORE THAN A YEAR!

The humidity, insects/mosquitos/bats & thunder are out...Girls' Club to the rescue!

Okay, clearly I've hit a dry spot with blog entry titles. Oyy! But I think the blog entry title perfectly sums up my life right about now.

No doubt, the month of April has been pivotal for me. I feel like I've adjusted to a comfortable degree and that I'm finally doing some work. Meaningful work. Working with the kids is exhausting but so much fun at the same time! Hooray...a sense of purpose again! Haha.

Aicha and Farida drawing at my house. They're so good -- I hang their drawings on my walls. Great decor, yo!

Jon and his sign language tutor, Siaka, at our usual hangout in Gaoua.

Demetrius returns!

Funny, funny kid.

Me helping my neighbors remove the shells of the neere. I don't quite know how to explain it. It's a fairly sweet snack and has the consistency of Cream of Wheat without water (Gwen's interpretation).

Holy crap, Rachid can JUMP! Look how far that is.

With CP1, the Alphabet and Literacy Project continues. With CP2, I've continued the Math and Numeracy Project which started off kinda rocky but now seems to be working well with the students. I just finished a Reading Club/Competition with CE1 and hope to replicate that with CE2. With CM2, they have the CEP Exam (Primary School exit exam) coming up and if they want to continue to middle school, they need to pass this! So I've been doing Jeopardy-like review exercises which have been so much fun!

Me conducting the CM2 Jeopardy Review. Divided the class in Rouge (red), Jaune (yellow) and Verte (green) teams...the team with the most points wins! Thanks to Jon for taking pictures!

Using Clay's World Map, I've been able to practice geography with the CM2 students. Really happy I replaced a Volunteer because you can build on what they've already done...in my case, a world map.

My CM1 Girls' Life Skills/English/Soccer Club is perhaps the highlight of my week. Seriously, we've only had a few meetings thus far but I can already see some changes in the girls. Most of them aren't as shy/timid anymore and attendance has been very consistent (all of them show up and it's not even a school day!). They're slowly (but surely) getting used to my French and are starting to understand the Life Skills activities a little more.

The girls doing soccer conditioning exercises before heading out to the field!

Cool action shot with Ali. So glad he can help me out with soccer!

Last club meeting, I discussed the different types of amour (love) -- with friends, family and your significant other. But I also mentioned another type of love: amour-propre (literally translated as love of self, but really, it's self-esteem). I created sample stories and asked the girls to identify any key adjectives that describe the girls in these sample stories. Example: "Fatimata loves math and history, and does very well in school. She always raises her hand when the teacher asks a question. When her class has tests, she always gets some of the highest grades and studies very hard to do so. She is usually one of the highest ranked students in her class." I would ask the girls, "How would you describe Fatimata?" and they would usually give some good responses, which surprised me. "Intelligent, hardworking, obedient to the teacher" and the list continues.

In the end, I compiled all of these adjectives on the board and wrote above all of them "Je suis..." (I am...). I went through the list aloud and asked the girls if they believed they were, say, intelligent, and asked them to raise their hand if they believed they were. Few girls did because of timidity, so I asked some of the bolder girls to say it: "Je suis intelligente!" (I am intelligent!) aloud in front of the class. After a few adjectives, most of the girls got the courage to say this, saying things such as "Je suis intelligente/belle/puissante/gentille!" (I am intelligent/beautiful/powerful/nice!) and yelling them out loud! Such an empowering feeling to hear these girls say these things amongst each other. It may seem like such a simple activity but having these girls come out of their shells and realize their true potential had me smiling for ear-to-ear all week!

A little bit of English and a little bit of Life Skills activities.

Being in the classroom many times each week has helped me realize one of my true life passions: teaching. It may not be the most glamorous job, and definitely not the highest paying. But if you want a country/society to develop, educating the youth is absolutely key. It led me to think about my future plans after Peace Corps...but I think I'll save that for a much later blog entry. =)

Well, the school year's almost coming to a close (or so it feels like). Rainy season is upon us and before I know it, the new group of trainees will be here. April -- you went by so quickly! I can't believe May is already here!

I realize that while I have my life here in Burkina Faso, life continues on in the US. Today (May 8) marks a number of special occasions. My Ate Maye (cousin on Dad's side) and Kuya Lester are getting married today in SF! So congrats! And some of my dear friends are graduating soon. From undergrad at LMU, my Ading Felicia, Robert/Daligs, Ben, Trisha, Carina, etc. etc. I'm so incredibly proud of you and am there in spirit. One of my other good friends is graduating tomorrow (May 9), Allyson, getting her Master of Arts in Education from LMU, too...Holla! Aaaand next weekend, one of my best friends, Melanie, will be graduating from Dominican as a Registered Nurse (RN). Seriously, I am blessed with the most amazing and inspiring family and friends!